Students’ Self-Directed Learning Activities

digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id communicate. All students select this activity to improve their English. But, there is student 14 who does not do this activity. This is because he does not have enough time to discuss with his friends. He is focused on his career. 4. Joining learning community Learning community that learners join does not only consist of students in home school Pena but also students from other schools. All students categorized in high class and three students having moderate self-directed learning skill improve their time to discuss with their friend through joining this club. 5. Reading Book Reading book is almost a familiar classic way of learning. 10 of 14 participants prefer to select reading book as their English learning activity. The book that they choose is also varied. Some of them prefer to learn from English book provided by school ─ student 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8. They admit that they still do not have adequate English skill to read some certain books which match with their interest, and career. Nevertheless, the others had different resource of book. Because they have already had dreams or future career, the others tend to choose English book related to their interest, hobby and career. For instance, student 7 is interested in automotive, he reads some books containing automotive and learns the terms used in English. Another example is what occurs on student 11. He prefers to read a book which is not provided by school for academic purpose such as religious English book. 6. Involvement of Technology in SDL Activities digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id The development of technology does not only change people’s lifestyle but also the ways of people learn. Even though book or other traditional educational tool is not left behind, the existence of new technology adds the various way that people can use to learn either online or offline. 7. Online Based-Learning All participants use technology to learn English through some online activities. Those activities include searching materials on internet, accessing tutorial video, and using social media. a. Searching English materials on internet. This activity is done not only by students in high self-directed learning but also students in low and moderate category. They assume that it is easier to search information rather than reading books. The most popular web search engine among students is Google. b. Watching English tutorial video In addition to Google, there are 10 students take any benefit from the YouTube channel. From YouTube, they learn English materials from tutorial video. However, participant 10 and 11 tend to be selective in choosing tutorial video on YouTube. The quality of video can influence their willingness to watch them. c. Social Media Students also use social media to understand English practically because they set the language setting in social media in English. According to students’ digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id statement, Social media is not only used as a platform for online discussion but also as a tool to make students get used to read English words. 8. Learning English through technology device Without any internet access, students still can take benefit from technology devices. Technology device are Radio, TV, Computer, android and so on. But, devices used by students at home school Pena are TV and computer. a. Watching TV program Student 2 who is classified into high self-directed learner is the only participant doing this activity. TV program that she watches is news in English. Hence, she can learn listening and pronunciation from what the anchor tells. She feels that this activity is an effortless to learn English. b. Watching English movie Similar to watching TV program, student 11 chooses the activity of watching movie. Student 11 stated that he has addicted to watch English movie and feels that he got some improvement after watching English movie. digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id c. Reading e-book In this technology era, book transforms to be digitalized and becomes e- book which can be read from android ad laptop. Even almost all students in senior high school Pena have the device to access e-book; Only 5 students do this activity. 9. Joining English course or additional course Guided by teacher is a need for some students. However, the duration and frequency of classroom meetings in homeschooling is very limited. Thus, joining English course is a good alternative activity to improve English. 7 students who participate on English course or additional course consist of students from high and moderate self-directed learning skill. Students who do not take this action to join English course or additional training are because of some reasons. Student 4, 13, 10, 9 do not have time to join the English course or additional training. While student 1, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14 are not interested in joining those kind of course. 10. Doing Exercise Similar to joining English course or additional course, the number students who do this activity is 7 students who are from high and moderate class of self- directed learning skill. 11. Home Work As self-directed learning’s dimension is only focused on the students’ effort, the role of teacher can be seen from the learning projects given to the learners. In this case, the learners in home school Pena use the homework as a digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id good source of learning. However, according to three students, the teacher seldom gives home work. In fact, students think that homework is very important for their learning progress. 12. Reading English article and news Book is not the only resource to read. Reading English article and news is chosen by one student in the high level of self-directed learning skill. He does not only like reading English article ad news but also likes reading e-book and books. He assumes that reading news sounds easy but it is important.

2. Students’ Self-Directed Learning Skill

Based on the data of self-directed learning skill, 21 students have low self-directed learning skill. It indicates that there are three learners who still need guidance from professional guide in learning English and more improvement in managing themselves to be self-directed. Not only guidance in improving English skill but also guidance to restructure their learning method they use. However, before restructuring the way of learning, the learners should identify their strength and weakness in learning. Therefore, the students have to improve their awareness to be self-directed. The level of moderate self-directed learning skill reaches 50. This is the highest rate of all levels. There are 7 students from 14 students are classified into moderate self-directed learners. They have half-way to be self-directed learners. They still need guidance from teacher to improve their learning progress. 29 of learners have high self-directed learning skill. It means 4 students have effective self-directed learning in which they can manage their learning in digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id English without any pressure from other people. In addition to manage their English learning progress, they also can assess and evaluate their own strength and weakness in learning English. The average students are moderate self directed learner. It means that most students are considered to have moderate ability to maintain and control their learning activities outside classroom. Therefore, they still need to identify and evaluate their learning progress.

3. Self-Directed Learning Barriers

Self-directed learning barrier is factors resisting students to do learning activities that they have chosen. The learning barrier is divided into two categories. They are internals and externals. a. Internal Self Directed Learning Barrier The internals is a factor resisting the self-directed learning practice which comes from the learners’ selves. The internals include the learner’s reluctance to have an effort to do self-directed learning. This behavior appears because of some factors as follows. 1. Laziness Almost all students face this laziness as their self-directed learning barrier. Student 2, 6, 11, 12, and 14 do not admit it as a barrier. But the rest of the students think it as big self-directed learning barrier. The reason behind this behavior is varied. One of the reasons is that laziness occurs because the only person to rely on and count on is the learner themselves. digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id All students have to manage their study by themselves. They do not set any schedule for learning so that learning is not a routine. Besides, when they face difficulty in learning English, sometimes it is hard to solve it without any clue from tutor. Therefore, it makes them lazy to learn. It occurs on student 2, and 5. The other factor behind this behavior is that they do not put learning English in their first priority. Thus, they feel reluctant to learn English and tend to do their interest. It occurs on student 3, and 13. The student 8 feels laziness because he feels more satisfied when there is teacher guiding him to learn. So, his problem is related to dissatisfaction. The other students do not know why they feel lazy to learn English by stating “Ya Pokoknya Malas.” 2. Confusion The confusion to the learning materials cannot be ignored to be one of the learning barriers to conduct self-directed learning. Even though they admit that they have strong willingness to learn by themselves. 2 of 14 participants are suffered from this confusion problem. Student 2 stated that this confusion can be worst because they do not have any guidance from other people. Not all problems can be solved in the classroom. Besides, they only have two classroom meetings in a week. Thus, they cannot solve this confusion by counting on the teacher’s explanation. 3. Lack of enthusiasm The problem of enthusiasm can be a learning barrier. It also occurs in senior high school students at home school Pena. Three students consist of two moderate digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id self-directed learners and one low self-directed learner do not like English subject. However, they know the importance of English. They stated that English is important for their future career. 4. Time management The other self-directed learning barrier is time management. Most students in home school Pena have other activities outside the classroom. Participant 14 has job as magician. Participant no. 4 has job as an entrepreneur. Participant no.13 has job as fashion designer. Thus, they have difficulty in spending time to learn English because of their career. Different from those students who have job to do, student 3 felt difficult to spend time in learning English because she spends more time for her hobby. The problem of time management is classified into internal factor because it depends on learners’ ability to control and manage their time. 5. Difficult to diagnose need Student 6 who is classified into low self-directed learner is difficult to diagnose her lack and strength in learning. Hence, she does not know what they need in learning. b. The External Self-Directed Learning Barrier The external factor which becomes the learner’s barrier is social influence. Student 1, 10 and 13 admit that they are easy to be influenced by their friends. When their friends do not accomplish some area of learning and feel laziness to study, they find themselves reluctant to study.